EBPs for Improving Academic Outcomes

These evidence-based practices have empirical support for improving academic, cognitive, and adaptive outcomes for learners with autism, as identified in the National Clearinghouse on Autism Evidence and Practice (NCAEP) review.

Augmentative & Alternative Communication (AAC)

For non-speaking learners, AAC offers a way to communicate using technology or other assistive devices — sign language, a picture system, or a device like an iPad. AAC gives non-speaking students a voice, so the operational means of delivering it should never be taken away from them.

Task Analysis

Breaking a complex skill into smaller, sequential steps that are taught one at a time and then chained together.

Prompting

Verbal, gestural, model, or physical assistance that helps a learner acquire or perform a target skill, then is systematically faded.

Time Delay

Inserting a brief, controlled wait between an instruction and a prompt to transfer the skill to independence and fade reliance on prompts.

Visual Supports

Visual schedules, graphic organizers, scripts, and structured-teaching maps that support comprehension, transitions, and independent work.

Technology-Aided Instruction & Intervention (TAII)

Instruction in which technology (apps, devices, software) is the central feature supporting a learning goal.

Modeling & Video Modeling

Demonstrating a target skill — live or on video — for the learner to imitate.

Self-Management

Teaching learners to discriminate, record, and reinforce their own behavior, building toward independence and self-determination.

Reinforcement

Following a target behavior with a consequence that increases the likelihood the behavior occurs again.

Source: Steinbrenner, J. R., Hume, K., Odom, S. L., et al. (2020). Evidence-Based Practices for Children, Youth, and Young Adults with Autism. National Clearinghouse on Autism Evidence and Practice (NCAEP), UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute.